World Football governing body FIFA has decided that the World Cup will be expanded to host 48 teams, up from 32.
\nAn initial stage of 16 groups of three teams will precede a knockout stage for the remaining 32 when the change is made for the 2026 tournament.
\nThe sport\u2019s world governing body voted unanimously in favour of the change at a meeting in Zurich yesterday.
\nThe number of tournament matches will rise to 80, from 64, but the eventual winners will still play only seven games.
\nThe tournament will be completed within 32 days – a measure to appease powerful European clubs, who objected to reform because of a crowded international schedule.
\nThe changes mark the first World Cup expansion since 1998.
\nNew FIFA Now, a campaign group that says the governing body needs to reform, labelled the expansion \u201ca money grab and power grab\u201d.
\n\u201cIt will dilute the competitiveness of the tournament and, therefore, the enjoyment of fans,\u201d it said in a statement.
\n\u201cIt will not help development of the game or provide improved competitive opportunities for lower-ranked nations. Instead, it will make a mockery of the qualification process for most confederations.\u201d
\nFIFA President, Gianni Infantino has been behind the move, saying the World Cup has to be \u201cmore inclusive\u201d.
\nSpeaking at a sports conference in Dubai in December, Infantino said expansion will also benefit \u201cthe development of football all over the world\u201d.
\nHe added,\u201cthere is nothing bigger in terms of boosting football in a country than participating in a World Cup.\u201d
\nDespite saying \u201cthe decision should not just be financially driven\u201d, Infantino did highlight the possible financial upsides.
\nAccording to FIFA\u2019s revenue is predicted to increase to \u00a35.29bn for a 48-team tournament, giving a potential profit rise of \u00a3521m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World Football governing body FIFA has decided that the World Cup will be expanded to host 48 teams, up from 32. An initial stage of 16 groups of three teams will precede a knockout stage for the remaining 32 when the change is made for the 2026 tournament. The sport\u2019s world governing body voted unanimously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/142114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}